I was talking to my son tonight about his day at school. He told me a story I remember all too well from my days at school. And while I vividly remember hating living through the moment just as he did today…I realized tonight that we do the same as adults.

He told me about how much he hates it when the teacher hands a test or assignment back and the scurry of comparing grades starts. Each student looking over at the desks and papers…hoping to confirm that they are better than everyone else…or hoping to disappear knowing that you are about to feel very small…compared to others. Always on lookout searching for ways of reminding people that you are smarter…prettier…more popular…or just plain better than everyone else the “handing back of the tests” moment is always there for the value vultures to swoop down and make someone feel a little bit smaller so they can feel a little bit bigger.  Kids and adults alike think they hide it. “Oh…”, someone asks as if they don’t really care, “what did you get?” And if, per chance you did score lower than they did, they take the moment to casually volunteer their test scores…just to make sure you know they are better than you.

Car’s, houses, friends, cloths, jobs, social networks, schools, titles, name dropping…all opportunities to do the same as adults…only the stakes are higher…because my pride is greater than that of a 10 year old kid. It seems that many of us never outgrew the need to compare ourselves to those around us…sizing up our lives to the lives of others to get some sort of idea where we fit in the social network chain or the pecking order at church, work or school. For those who don’t follow Christ I can understand it. But for those who claim they do…its even more sad. Why is it that we, who are the most valued in all of creation, can spend so much emotional time and energy trying to make other people look small so I can look big? How free we would be, and consequently like Christ, if we could be so solid in who we really were than we could be unmoved by what other people think of us or how they try and make us feel for their benefit.

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